System and method for automated voice quality testing

ABSTRACT

A system for automated audio quality testing, comprising a plurality of endpoint emulators, call engines, and optionally audio generator devices and head and torso simulator devices, and a method for using such a system for testing of audio quality over a variety of system architectures for optimization of contact center operations and improvement of customer experience.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/709,292, titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED VOICE QUALITYTESTING”, which was filed on May 11, 2015, which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/140,470, titled “SYSTEM AND METHODFOR AUTOMATED VOICE QUALITY TESTING”, which was filed on Dec. 25, 2013,now issued as U.S. Pat. No. 9,031,221 on May 12, 2015, which is acontinuation of abandoned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/936,183,titled “SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED VOICE QUALITY TESTING”, whichwas filed on Jul. 6, 2013 which is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 12/644,343, titled “INTEGRATED TESTING PLATFORM FORCONTACT CENTRES”, which was filed on Dec. 22, 2009, now issued as U.S.Pat. No. 8,625,772 on Jan. 7, 2014, which is a continuation-in-part ofabandoned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 13/567,089, titled “SYSTEMAND METHOD FOR AUTOMATED ADAPTATION AND IMPROVEMENT OF SPEAKERAUTHENTICATION IN A VOICE BIOMETRIC SYSTEM ENVIRONMENT” which was filedon Aug. 6, 2012, the specifications of each of which are herebyincorporated by reference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates to the field of contact center operations, andmore particularly to the field of automated testing of voice quality forcall-related applications.

2. Discussion of the State of the Art

In the field of contact center operations, traditionally communicationbetween agents and customers is performed via voice-based systems suchas traditional telephony or voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) systems.Such systems rely heavily on the quality of audio transmission betweenparticipants, as a breakdown in this audio would inhibit effectivecommunication, which in the case of a contact center could have anegative impact on a variety of important metrics such as overall calllength, or a customer's satisfaction with the service they received whencalling. It is common in the art for a contact center to conductresearch into customer satisfaction such as initiating outboundcallbacks (wherein an agent proactively attempts to reach a customer whohad previously called into a center to speak with an agent) to verify acustomer's satisfaction. Using such research, it is possible for centersto receive feedback on the quality of their services both at an agentlevel (how helpful was the agent, how well did they listen, and othervarious metrics for agent performance), but also at a technology level(how accurately was the call routed to an agent appropriate for theissue, how clear was the connection, did the call drop or experiencequality loss, or other such metrics). However, such methods are limitedin that they require an agent to perform an outbound call to a customer,which has the negative effect of reducing the number of agents availableto accept inbound calls, as well as potentially decreasing customersatisfaction by pursuing contact when it may not be desired or at aninopportune moment (such as a customer receiving a call when they areeating a meal).

What is needed is a means to test the quality of an audio connection ina contact center without necessitating either the input of a customer orthe assistance of an actual agent, i.e. an automated and fully internal(with respect to a contact center's operations) system for audio qualitytesting.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the inventor has conceived and reduced to practice, in apreferred embodiment of the invention, a method for automated audioquality testing, and a preferred system for implementation of such amethod.

According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, a system forautomated testing and scoring of audio connection quality, comprising aplurality of endpoint emulators and call engines, is disclosed.According to the embodiment, system elements may be implementedalongside existing contact center architecture such as (for example) aweb server which may operate a web interface or browser for callsimulation creation, gateway such as a router or SIP server fordirecting calls or other data within a contact center, or a data networksuch as an Internet or other network. According to the embodiment, a webserver may be connected to a call engine for the purpose of creating acall simulation, which may utilize existing audio samples (hereafterreferred to as “reference audio”) for testing purposes, a process whichmay be either manually or automatically operated. A call engine may thensimulate a customer generating an inbound call request to a contactcenter, sending audio or other data over a public switched telephonenetwork (PSTN) or via an Internet or other data network as may beappropriate for simulation of voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) callinteractions. Within a contact center, an endpoint manager may besimilarly connected to a web server for creation of a call simulationutilizing reference audio, to simulate an agent's participation in acustomer interaction. An endpoint emulator may be similarly connected toexisting components of a contact center's architecture, including (butnot limited to) such elements as a router which may direct calls totheir appropriate destinations (such as enforcing boundaries such thatsimulated interactions do not overlap with actual contact centeractivities, potentially having a negative impact on contact centerperformance or customer experience), a database or other storage mediumwhich may store audio testing results or other data from simulations, ora call classifier which may inspect audio or other traffic passingthrough a contact center and determine whether such data is of an actualor simulated nature, again facilitating enforcement of boundaries sothat simulations do not overlap with contact center operations. It willbe appreciated by one having ordinary skill in the art, that such asystem is by design flexible, and may be adapted to any of a variety ofexisting contact center architectures according to the invention, assuch a system does not rely on specific contact center components otherthan those claimed.

In another preferred embodiment of the invention, a method for automatedtesting or scoring of audio quality is disclosed. According to theembodiment, a call simulation may be created within an endpoint emulatorthrough a web interface, utilizing reference audio, for simulation of acontact center agent receiving an interaction from a customer. A similarcall simulation with reference audio may be created within a call enginevia a web interface, for simulation of a caller initiating a call with acontact center to interact with an agent. It will be appreciated thatsuch call simulation creation processes may be either manual orautomated processes, or some combination of both (such as manuallycreating a call simulation and then setting it to run at scheduledintervals) according to the invention. Reference audio for a callersimulation may then be sent from a call engine to a contact centerenvironment via existing channels such as a PSTN or data network such asan Internet, as may be the case for VoIP call simulation. Within acontact center, a router or gateway may be implemented to distributeincoming calls appropriately and ensure that simulated calls from a callengine are sent to the appropriate endpoints, i.e. not sent to actualcontact center agents who may be waiting to receive calls from actualcustomers. When an endpoint emulator receives incoming audio routed froma call engine, it may then measure the quality of the incoming audio andgenerate a score or rating accordingly, simulating the quality of audioas it would be perceived by a contact center agent receiving a call.This score may be stored in a database or other storage medium within acontact center for viewing and further action. An endpoint emulator maythen respond with reference audio which is sent back to a call engineoptionally via existing channels as described above, such as a routerand PSTN or Internet or other network. When audio reaches a call engine,it may be similarly measured and scored for quality, appropriatelysimulating the quality of audio as it would be perceived by a customerduring an interaction with a contact center agent. A call simulation mayoptionally continue in this manner, with reference audio samples beingfurther sent between a call engine and endpoint emulator and measured orscored for respective quality, until such time as a call simulation isconcluded either intentionally or due to an error or fault such as adropped call (which may then be further logged in a database or otherstorage medium for testing and analysis purposes).

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a system forautomated audio quality testing further comprising a plurality of audiogenerator devices, is disclosed. According to the embodiment, aplurality of audio generator devices may be implemented within a contactcenter as an element of an automated audio testing system, which maythen be connected to agent equipment such as telephone handsets orheadsets. During an audio testing simulation as described previously,when reference audio is to be sent from an endpoint emulator in responseto received audio form a call engine, such reference audio may be playedthrough an audio generator device into an agent's equipment such that inaddition to testing the quality of audio over a contact center'sarchitecture, testing is facilitated also of agent hardware (such asmight facilitate determination of any audio quality loss due to alow-quality or defective agent headset). It will be appreciated thatsuch an arrangement may be variable in nature, and if multiple audiogenerator devices are implemented they may be connected to a variety ofagent hardware such as handsets, headsets, or other equipment in anycombination. In this manner, such a system may be readily adapted to avariety of existing contact center architectures and agent hardwaretechnology, and a system may be readily adapted as such architectures ortechnology may be subject to change (such as, for example, if a contactcenter upgrades agents' headset to a different model). It will befurther appreciated that the implementation of audio generator devicesneed not require the use of actual agent workstations, and that agenthardware and audio generator devices may be connected in any arrangementto a contact center's architecture according to the embodiment, forexample a contact center might dedicate a specific room to agenthardware testing, utilizing a variety of agent hardware attached to aserver or similar computing hardware appropriate for simulating an agentworkstation, such that an actual agent workstation environment may beunaffected by testing. In this manner, test equipment may be operatedwithout interfering with contact center operations, and withoutdiminishing the number of available physical agent workstations for use.

According to a further embodiment of the invention, a system forautomated audio quality testing further comprising a plurality of headand torso simulator (HATS) devices, is disclosed. According to theembodiment, a HATS device may be a replica or “dummy” torso designed tosimulate the physical arrangement and/or acoustic properties of a humanbody. Such a device may be utilized in conjunction with a system forautomated audio quality testing as described previously, and mayincorporate audio generator devices as described previously eitherintegral to or removably fixed to a HATS device, for the purpose ofgenerating and/or receiving audio in a manner closely resembling that ofan actual agent. In such an arrangement, when reference audio isreceived by an endpoint emulator it may be transmitted through agenthardware such as a headset, and may then be received by an audio sensorintegral to or removably affixed to a HATS device upon which such aheadset may be placed. Audio quality may then be scored as describedpreviously, and new reference audio may then be transmitted through anaudio generator device integral to or removably affixed to a HATS deviceto simulate an agent speaking, which may then be received by agenthardware such as a handset or headset, for transmission back to a callengine as described previously. In this manner, audio testing may nowincorporate testing of agent hardware according to actual use by a humanagent, facilitating more thorough and precise testing of agent hardwareand customer experience and more closely simulating actual contactcenter operations. It will be appreciated that such an arrangement neednot require the use of physical agent workstations, and HATS devices maybe utilized in any configuration alongside other elements to facilitatea flexible configuration that may be readily adapted to any contactcenter architecture, and adapted as such an architecture may be subjectto change. In this manner, testing utilizing HATS devices may beperformed without affecting contact center operations or reducing thenumber of physical agent workstation available.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

The accompanying drawings illustrate several embodiments of theinvention and, together with the description, serve to explain theprinciples of the invention according to the embodiments. One skilled inthe art will recognize that the particular embodiments illustrated inthe drawings are merely exemplary, and are not intended to limit thescope of the present invention.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary hardwarearchitecture of a computing device used in an embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary logical architecturefor a client device, according to an embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing an exemplary architectural arrangementof clients, servers, and external services, according to an embodimentof the invention.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating an exemplary system for automatedaudio quality testing, according to a preferred embodiment of theinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram illustrating a method for automated audioquality testing, according to a preferred embodiment of the invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram illustrating a system for automated audioquality testing incorporating audio generator devices, according to anembodiment of the invention.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of a HATS device and its use, according to anembodiment of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The inventor has conceived, and reduced to practice, a system and methodfor automation of audio-based contact center interaction qualitytesting, comprising a flexible architecture and adaptable method tofacilitate wide use regardless of contact center architecture, andincorporating elements such as audio generator devices and HATS devicesto further improve testing and optimize contact center operations.

One or more different inventions may be described in the presentapplication. Further, for one or more of the inventions describedherein, numerous alternative embodiments may be described; it should beunderstood that these are presented for illustrative purposes only. Thedescribed embodiments are not intended to be limiting in any sense. Oneor more of the inventions may be widely applicable to numerousembodiments, as is readily apparent from the disclosure. In general,embodiments are described in sufficient detail to enable those skilledin the art to practice one or more of the inventions, and it is to beunderstood that other embodiments may be utilized and that structural,logical, software, electrical and other changes may be made withoutdeparting from the scope of the particular inventions. Accordingly,those skilled in the art will recognize that one or more of theinventions may be practiced with various modifications and alterations.Particular features of one or more of the inventions may be describedwith reference to one or more particular embodiments or figures thatform a part of the present disclosure, and in which are shown, by way ofillustration, specific embodiments of one or more of the inventions. Itshould be understood, however, that such features are not limited tousage in the one or more particular embodiments or figures withreference to which they are described. The present disclosure is neithera literal description of all embodiments of one or more of theinventions nor a listing of features of one or more of the inventionsthat must be present in all embodiments.

Headings of sections provided in this patent application and the titleof this patent application are for convenience only, and are not to betaken as limiting the disclosure in any way.

Devices that are in communication with each other need not be incontinuous communication with each other, unless expressly specifiedotherwise. In addition, devices that are in communication with eachother may communicate directly or indirectly through one or moreintermediaries, logical or physical.

A description of an embodiment with several components in communicationwith each other does not imply that all such components are required. Tothe contrary, a variety of optional components may be described toillustrate a wide variety of possible embodiments of one or more of theinventions and in order to more fully illustrate one or more aspects ofthe inventions. Similarly, although process steps, method steps,algorithms or the like may be described in a sequential order, suchprocesses, methods and algorithms may generally be configured to work inalternate orders, unless specifically stated to the contrary. In otherwords, any sequence or order of steps that may be described in thispatent application does not, in and of itself, indicate a requirementthat the steps be performed in that order. The steps of describedprocesses may be performed in any order practical. Further, some stepsmay be performed simultaneously despite being described or implied asoccurring non-simultaneously (e.g., because one step is described afterthe other step). Moreover, the illustration of a process by itsdepiction in a drawing does not imply that the illustrated process isexclusive of other variations and modifications thereto, does not implythat the illustrated process or any of its steps are necessary to one ormore of the invention(s), and does not imply that the illustratedprocess is preferred. Also, steps are generally described once perembodiment, but this does not mean they must occur once, or that theymay only occur once each time a process, method, or algorithm is carriedout or executed. Some steps may be omitted in some embodiments or someoccurrences, or some steps may be executed more than once in a givenembodiment or occurrence.

When a single device or article is described, it will be readilyapparent that more than one device or article may be used in place of asingle device or article. Similarly, where more than one device orarticle is described, it will be readily apparent that a single deviceor article may be used in place of the more than one device or article.

The functionality or the features of a device may be alternativelyembodied by one or more other devices that are not explicitly describedas having such functionality or features. Thus, other embodiments of oneor more of the inventions need not include the device itself.

Techniques and mechanisms described or referenced herein will sometimesbe described in singular form for clarity. However, it should be notedthat particular embodiments include multiple iterations of a techniqueor multiple instantiations of a mechanism unless noted otherwise.Process descriptions or blocks in figures should be understood asrepresenting modules, segments, or portions of code which include one ormore executable instructions for implementing specific logical functionsor steps in the process. Alternate implementations are included withinthe scope of embodiments of the present invention in which, for example,functions may be executed out of order from that shown or discussed,including substantially concurrently or in reverse order, depending onthe functionality involved, as would be understood by those havingordinary skill in the art.

DEFINITIONS

“Reference audio”, as used herein, refers to prerecorded audio samplesrepresenting customer and contact center agent interaction elements,such as greetings, questions, or responses. Reference audio may be ofvarious nature regarding such audio qualities as bitrate, length, orother audio qualities and it will be appreciated that the use of audiosamples with varying qualities may benefit testing as actualinteractions may not necessarily fall within “ideal” operatingconditions.

A “head and torso simulator”, abbreviated HATS, as used herein refers toa mechanical replica of a human torso designed as a stand-in for anactual human operator during testing, for such purposes as testing audioquality incorporating agent hardware such as telephony handsets orheadsets, or testing of audio transmission through a microphone. In thismanner, every point of the customer-agent interaction process may betested and scored according to the method of the invention, removinguntested variables which may be detrimental to contact centeroperations.

Hardware Architecture

Generally, the techniques disclosed herein may be implemented onhardware or a combination of software and hardware. For example, theymay be implemented in an operating system kernel, in a separate userprocess, in a library package bound into network applications, on aspecially constructed machine, on an application-specific integratedcircuit (ASIC), or on a network interface card.

Software/hardware hybrid implementations of at least some of theembodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on a programmablenetwork-resident machine (which should be understood to includeintermittently connected network-aware machines) selectively activatedor reconfigured by a computer program stored in memory. Such networkdevices may have multiple network interfaces that may be configured ordesigned to utilize different types of network communication protocols.A general architecture for some of these machines may be disclosedherein in order to illustrate one or more exemplary means by which agiven unit of functionality may be implemented. According to specificembodiments, at least some of the features or functionalities of thevarious embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented on one or moregeneral-purpose computers associated with one or more networks, such asfor example an end-user computer system, a client computer, a networkserver or other server system, a mobile computing device (e.g., tabletcomputing device, mobile phone, smartphone, laptop, and the like), aconsumer electronic device, a music player, or any other suitableelectronic device, router, switch, or the like, or any combinationthereof. In at least some embodiments, at least some of the features orfunctionalities of the various embodiments disclosed herein may beimplemented in one or more virtualized computing environments (e.g.,network computing clouds, virtual machines hosted on one or morephysical computing machines, or the like).

Referring now to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram depicting anexemplary computing device 100 suitable for implementing at least aportion of the features or functionalities disclosed herein. Computingdevice 100 may be, for example, any one of the computing machines listedin the previous paragraph, or indeed any other electronic device capableof executing software- or hardware-based instructions according to oneor more programs stored in memory. Computing device 100 may be adaptedto communicate with a plurality of other computing devices, such asclients or servers, over communications networks such as a wide areanetwork a metropolitan area network, a local area network, a wirelessnetwork, the Internet, or any other network, using known protocols forsuch communication, whether wireless or wired.

In one embodiment, computing device 100 includes one or more centralprocessing units (CPU) 102, one or more interfaces 110, and one or morebusses 106 (such as a peripheral component interconnect (PCI) bus). Whenacting under the control of appropriate software or firmware, CPU 102may be responsible for implementing specific functions associated withthe functions of a specifically configured computing device or machine.For example, in at least one embodiment, a computing device 100 may beconfigured or designed to function as a server system utilizing CPU 102,local memory 101 and/or remote memory 120, and interface(s) 110. In atleast one embodiment, CPU 102 may be caused to perform one or more ofthe different types of functions and/or operations under the control ofsoftware modules or components, which for example, may include anoperating system and any appropriate applications software, drivers, andthe like.

CPU 102 may include one or more processors 103 such as, for example, aprocessor from one of the Intel, ARM, Qualcomm, and AMD families ofmicroprocessors. In some embodiments, processors 103 may includespecially designed hardware such as application-specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), electrically erasable programmable read-only memories(EEPROMs), field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), and so forth, forcontrolling operations of computing device 100. In a specificembodiment, a local memory 101 (such as non-volatile random accessmemory (RAM) and/or read-only memory (ROM), including for example one ormore levels of cached memory) may also form part of CPU 102. However,there are many different ways in which memory may be coupled to system100. Memory 101 may be used for a variety of purposes such as, forexample, caching and/or storing data, programming instructions, and thelike.

As used herein, the term “processor” is not limited merely to thoseintegrated circuits referred to in the art as a processor, a mobileprocessor, or a microprocessor, but broadly refers to a microcontroller,a microcomputer, a programmable logic controller, anapplication-specific integrated circuit, and any other programmablecircuit.

In one embodiment, interfaces 110 are provided as network interfacecards (NICs). Generally, NICs control the sending and receiving of datapackets over a computer network; other types of interfaces 110 may forexample support other peripherals used with computing device 100. Amongthe interfaces that may be provided are Ethernet interfaces, frame relayinterfaces, cable interfaces, DSL interfaces, token ring interfaces,graphics interfaces, and the like. In addition, various types ofinterfaces may be provided such as, for example, universal serial bus(USB), Serial, Ethernet, FIREWIRE™, PCI, parallel, radio frequency (RF),BLUETOOTH™, near-field communications (e.g., using near-fieldmagnetics), 802.11 (WiFi), frame relay, TCP/IP, ISDN, fast Ethernetinterfaces, Gigabit Ethernet interfaces, asynchronous transfer mode(ATM) interfaces, high-speed serial interface (HSSI) interfaces, Pointof Sale (POS) interfaces, fiber data distributed interfaces (FDDIs), andthe like. Generally, such interfaces 110 may include ports appropriatefor communication with appropriate media. In some cases, they may alsoinclude an independent processor and, in some in stances, volatileand/or non-volatile memory (e.g., RAM).

Although the system shown in FIG. 1 illustrates one specificarchitecture for a computing device 100 for implementing one or more ofthe inventions described herein, it is by no means the only devicearchitecture on which at least a portion of the features and techniquesdescribed herein may be implemented. For example, architectures havingone or any number of processors 103 may be used, and such processors 103may be present in a single device or distributed among any number ofdevices. In one embodiment, a single processor 103 handlescommunications as well as routing computations, while in otherembodiments a separate dedicated communications processor may beprovided. In various embodiments, different types of features orfunctionalities may be implemented in a system according to theinvention that includes a client device (such as a tablet device orsmartphone running client software) and server systems (such as a serversystem described in more detail below).

Regardless of network device configuration, the system of the presentinvention may employ one or more memories or memory modules (such as,for example, remote memory block 120 and local memory 101) configured tostore data, program instructions for the general-purpose networkoperations, or other information relating to the functionality of theembodiments described herein (or any combinations of the above). Programinstructions may control execution of or comprise an operating systemand/or one or more applications, for example. Memory 120 or memories101, 120 may also be configured to store data structures, configurationdata, encryption data, historical system operations information, or anyother specific or generic non-program information described herein.

Because such information and program instructions may be employed toimplement one or more systems or methods described herein, at least somenetwork device embodiments may include nontransitory machine-readablestorage media, which, for example, may be configured or designed tostore program instructions, state information, and the like forperforming various operations described herein. Examples of suchnontransitory machine-readable storage media include, but are notlimited to, magnetic media such as hard disks, floppy disks, andmagnetic tape; optical media such as CD-ROM disks; magneto-optical mediasuch as optical disks, and hardware devices that are speciallyconfigured to store and perform program instructions, such as read-onlymemory devices (ROM), flash memory, solid state drives, memristormemory, random access memory (RAM), and the like. Examples of programinstructions include both object code, such as may be produced by acompiler, machine code, such as may be produced by an assembler or alinker, byte code, such as may be generated by for example a JAVA™compiler and may be executed using a Java virtual machine or equivalent,or files containing higher level code that may be executed by thecomputer using an interpreter (for example, scripts written in Python,Perl, Ruby, Groovy, or any other scripting language).

In some embodiments, systems according to the present invention may beimplemented on a standalone computing system. Referring now to FIG. 2,there is shown a block diagram depicting a typical exemplaryarchitecture of one or more embodiments or components thereof on astandalone computing system. Computing device 200 includes processors210 that may run software that carry out one or more functions orapplications of embodiments of the invention, such as for example aclient application 230. Processors 210 may carry out computinginstructions under control of an operating system 220 such as, forexample, a version of Microsoft's WINDOWS™ operating system, Apple's MacOS/X or iOS operating systems, some variety of the Linux operatingsystem, Google's ANDROID™ operating system, or the like. In many cases,one or more shared services 225 may be operable in system 200, and maybe useful for providing common services to client applications 230.Services 225 may for example be WINDOWS™ services, user-space commonservices in a Linux environment, or any other type of common servicearchitecture used with operating system 210. Input devices 270 may be ofany type suitable for receiving user input, including for example akeyboard, touchscreen, microphone (for example, for voice input), mouse,touchpad, trackball, or any combination thereof. Output devices 260 maybe of any type suitable for providing output to one or more users,whether remote or local to system 200, and may include for example oneor more screens for visual output, speakers, printers, or anycombination thereof. Memory 240 may be random-access memory having anystructure and architecture known in the art, for use by processors 210,for example to run software. Storage devices 250 may be any magnetic,optical, mechanical, memristor, or electrical storage device for storageof data in digital form. Examples of storage devices 250 include flashmemory, magnetic hard drive, CD-ROM, and/or the like.

In some embodiments, systems of the present invention may be implementedon a distributed computing network, such as one having any number ofclients and/or servers. Referring now to FIG. 3, there is shown a blockdiagram depicting an exemplary architecture for implementing at least aportion of a system according to an embodiment of the invention on adistributed computing network. According to the embodiment, any numberof clients 330 may be provided. Each client 330 may run software forimplementing client-side portions of the present invention; clients maycomprise a system 200 such as that illustrated in FIG. 2. In addition,any number of servers 320 may be provided for handling requests receivedfrom one or more clients 330. Clients 330 and servers 320 maycommunicate with one another via one or more electronic networks 310,which may be in various embodiments any of the Internet, a wide areanetwork, a mobile telephony network, a wireless network (such as WiFi,Wimax, and so forth), or a local area network (or indeed any networktopology known in the art; the invention does not prefer any one networktopology over any other). Networks 310 may be implemented using anyknown network protocols, including for example wired and/or wirelessprotocols.

In addition, in some embodiments, servers 320 may call external services370 when needed to obtain additional information, or to refer toadditional data concerning a particular call. Communications withexternal services 370 may take place, for example, via one or morenetworks 310. In various embodiments, external services 370 may compriseweb-enabled services or functionality related to or installed on thehardware device itself. For example, in an embodiment where clientapplications 230 are implemented on a smartphone or other electronicdevice, client applications 230 may obtain information stored in aserver system 320 in the cloud or on an external service 370 deployed onone or more of a particular enterprise's or user's premises.

In some embodiments of the invention, clients 330 or servers 320 (orboth) may make use of one or more specialized services or appliancesthat may be deployed locally or remotely across one or more networks310. For example, one or more databases 340 may be used or referred toby one or more embodiments of the invention. It should be understood byone having ordinary skill in the art that databases 340 may be arrangedin a wide variety of architectures and using a wide variety of dataaccess and manipulation means. For example, in various embodiments oneor more databases 340 may comprise a relational database system using astructured query language (SQL), while others may comprise analternative data storage technology such as those referred to in the artas “NoSQL” (for example, Hadoop Cassandra, Google BigTable, and soforth). In some embodiments, variant database architectures such ascolumn-oriented databases, in-memory databases, clustered databases,distributed databases, or even flat file data repositories may be usedaccording to the invention. It will be appreciated by one havingordinary skill in the art that any combination of known or futuredatabase technologies may be used as appropriate, unless a specificdatabase technology or a specific arrangement of components is specifiedfor a particular embodiment herein. Moreover, it should be appreciatedthat the term “database” as used herein may refer to a physical databasemachine, a cluster of machines acting as a single database system, or alogical database within an overall database management system. Unless aspecific meaning is specified for a given use of the term “database”, itshould be construed to mean any of these senses of the word, all ofwhich are understood as a plain meaning of the term “database” by thosehaving ordinary skill in the art.

Similarly, most embodiments of the invention may make use of one or moresecurity systems 360 and configuration systems 350. Security andconfiguration management are common information technology (IT) and webfunctions, and some amount of each are generally associated with any ITor web systems. It should be understood by one having ordinary skill inthe art that any configuration or security subsystems known in the artnow or in the future may be used in conjunction with embodiments of theinvention without limitation, unless a specific security 360 orconfiguration system 350 or approach is specifically required by thedescription of any specific embodiment.

In various embodiments, functionality for implementing systems ormethods of the present invention may be distributed among any number ofclient and/or server components. For example, various software modulesmay be implemented for performing various functions in connection withthe present invention, and such modules may be variously implemented torun on server and/or client components.

Conceptual Architecture

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a preferred embodiment of the invention,illustrating a system for automated audio quality testing within acontact center 400. As illustrated, a web server 401 may send referenceaudio 402, i.e. audio samples simulating a customer's interactions witha contact center agent, to a call engine 403. Similarly, a web server407 may be used to send reference audio 408 representing audio samplesof a contact center agent's participation in an interaction, to anendpoint emulator 406. Call engine 403 may then initiate a simulatedcall via a PSTN 404 or similar network (such as, in the case of VoIPcalls, an Internet or similar data network), to which may be connected arouter 405 within contact center 400. Router 405 may then determine tosend a call simulation to an endpoint emulator 406, which may usepreviously received reference audio 408 to simulate a contact centeragent's responses to a call. As illustrated, a bidirectional call flowmay be established between call engine 403 and endpoint emulator 407,facilitating continued call simulation of a prolonged interaction asappropriate. Each time audio is received by a call engine 403 orendpoint emulator 407, it may be scored based on its quality and such ascore optionally stored in a database 409 or similar data storage mediumfor later retrieval for review or analysis. In this manner, automatedtesting of audio quality across a contact center's systems may befacilitated, and such testing results stored for use in any of a varietyof further applications, such as (for example) the generation of reportsdetailing test results or analysis of previous test results tofacilitate optimization of future tests or contact center operations. Itwill be appreciated that the arrangement illustrated is exemplary, andthat a variety of additional or alternate elements may be utilizedaccording to the invention, enabling such a system to be flexible innature and readily adaptable to a variety of contact centerarchitectures.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EXEMPLARY EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 5 is a method illustration of a preferred embodiment of theinvention, illustrating a general flow for handling automated audioquality testing as may be utilized within a contact center according toa system described above (referring to FIG. 4). As illustrated, in aninitial step 501, a call simulation begins. This may be initiated via aweb interface (as illustrated previously, referring to FIG. 4) or othermeans of interaction with a testing system, and may be performed as partof a manual or automated process. In a next step 510, reference audio issent to an endpoint emulator for use in simulating a contact centeragent's responses to inbound interactions form a customer. In a parallelstep 520, similar reference audio may be sent to a call engine for usein simulating a customer's inbound interactions with a contact centeragent. In a next step 521, reference audio for customer simulation maybe sent to a contact center via inbound call handling means, such asover a PSTN or similar telephony network or via an Internet or otherdata network for VoIP call interactions, and may be processed internallybe a contact center according to standard call handling for inboundinteractions. In a next step 522, reference audio may be routed within acontact center to an endpoint emulator for simulated agent handling. Ina next step 511, an endpoint emulator may score received audio based onquality, and may then respond to incoming reference audio with referenceaudio received in a previous step 510, simulating an agent's response toa customer interaction. In a further step 530, audio may be sent from anendpoint emulator via outbound handling means back to a call engine,simulating an agent's response being received by a customer. Audio maythen be scored by a call engine based on quality, and in a final step531 a call simulation may optionally continue with exchange of referenceaudio between a call engine and endpoint emulator, simulating prolongedinteractions between a customer and contact center agent. In an optionalstep 532, scoring data from previous steps 511 and 530 may be stored forfuture use in a database or similar data storage medium, which may beinternal or external to a contact center (such as remote, cloud-hostedstorage service on an Internet or other data network). It will beappreciated that steps illustrated are exemplary, and additional stepsmay be implemented according to the invention and as may be appropriateaccording to a specific contact center's arrangement, such as inclusionof further steps for additional software or hardware elements notfeatured in the exemplary system.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of an embodiment of the invention,illustrating a system for automated audio quality testing within acontact center 400. As illustrated and previously described, a webserver 401 may send reference audio 402, i.e. audio samples simulating acustomer's interactions with a contact center agent, to a call engine403. According to the embodiment, a plurality of audio generator devices601 may be implemented to generate reference audio 408 for use insimulating agent responses to inbound audio interactions. Referenceaudio may be transmitted via agent hardware 602 such as a telephonehandset or headset, or via audio software on an agent workstation foruse in testing VoIP call interactions. Audio may then be sent through acall manager 603, which may serve the function of handling callinteractions and responses between simulated agents and customers. Callengine 403 may initiate a simulated call via a PSTN 404 or similarnetwork (such as, in the case of VoIP calls, an Internet or similar datanetwork), to which may be connected a router 405 within contact center400. Router 405 may then determine to send a call simulation to a callmanager 603, which may use previously received reference audio 408 tosimulate a contact center agent's responses to a call. As illustrated, abidirectional call flow may be established between call engine 403 andcall manager 603, facilitating continued call simulation of a prolongedinteraction as appropriate. Each time audio is received by a call engine403 or call manager 603, it may be scored based on its quality and sucha score optionally stored in a database 409 or similar data storagemedium for later retrieval for review or analysis. In this manner,automated testing of audio quality across a contact center's systems maybe facilitated, and such testing results stored for use in any of avariety of further applications, such as (for example) the generation ofreports detailing test results or analysis of previous test results tofacilitate optimization of future tests or contact center operations. Itwill be appreciated that the arrangement illustrated is exemplary, andthat a variety of additional or alternate elements may be utilizedaccording to the invention, enabling such a system to be flexible innature and readily adaptable to a variety of contact centerarchitectures.

FIG. 7 is an illustration of an exemplary HATS device 700 for use insimulating a contact center agent incorporating physical and acousticproperties of a human torso. As illustrated, a HATS device 700 may havethe general physical shape and form of a human torso, and may beconstructed in such a way and with such materials as to replicate thedensity or other properties of a human body for acoustic accuracy. Asillustrated, HATS device 700 may comprise an integrally fixed orremovable affixed audio generator device 601, which may be used totransmit reference audio samples, appropriately simulating an agentspeaking with their mouth into a piece of hardware such as a telephonyheadset microphone 703. HATS device 700 may further comprise a pluralityof integral or removable affixed audio receivers 702, which may bedesigned and positioned in such a way as to simulate a human agent'sears for receiving transmitted audio, such as from a telephony headset'sspeakers 704. As illustrated, a HATS device 700 may be used in such afashion as to simulate an agent utilizing their workstation equipmentsuch as (as illustrated) a phone headset or other equipment, so as tomore accurately simulate the audio properties of a human agentinteracting with their equipment while interacting with a customer. Itwill be appreciated that such a configuration as illustrated isexemplary in nature, and that alternate or additional agent hardwareincluding (but not limited to) phone headsets, handsets, speakerphonesystems, or other equipment may be utilized according to the invention,and a HATS device 700 may be readily adapted for such use.

The skilled person will be aware of a range of possible modifications ofthe various embodiments described above. Accordingly, the presentinvention is defined by the claims and their equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for automated testing of audio quality,comprising: a call engine comprising at least a plurality of programminginstructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of acomputing device, and configured to receive at least a plurality ofreference audio samples via a network, and configured to generate asimulated telephone call; a first audio generator device configured totransmit the plurality of reference audio samples; and a head and torsosimulator device comprising at least a microphone and a second audiogenerator device, and configured to simulate at least a plurality ofphysical qualities of human head and torso anatomy; wherein the firstaudio generator device transmits a reference audio sample to simulateinbound audio from a calling party to a receiving party comprising thehead and torso simulator device; wherein the second audio generatordevice transmits audio from the head and torso simulator device tosimulate receiving party interaction with the calling party; and whereinthe first audio generator device transmits audio to the head and torsosimulator device to simulate calling party interaction with thereceiving party.
 2. A method for automated testing of audio quality,comprising the steps of: creating a simulated telephone call, using acall engine comprising at least a plurality of programming instructionsstored in a memory and operating on a processor of a computing device,and configured to receive at least a plurality of reference audiosamples via a network, and configured to generate simulated telephonecalls over an audio connection; receiving a plurality of reference audioat an endpoint manager comprising at least a plurality of programminginstructions stored in a memory and operating on a processor of acomputing device, and configured to provide at least a plurality ofreference audio samples to simulate audible responses during thesimulated telephone call; transmitting a plurality of reference audiofrom the call engine to the endpoint manager to simulate an callingparty of the simulated telephone call; scoring received reference audioby the endpoint manager; transmitting a plurality of reference audiofrom the endpoint manager to the call engine to simulate a receivingparty of the simulated telephone call; scoring received reference audioby the call engine; and scoring the two-directional audio connectionquality; wherein a head and torso simulator device comprising at least amicrophone and an audio generator simulates a plurality of properties ofa human body and is configured to receive at least a plurality ofreference audio transmitted by the call engine and is further configuredto transmit the endpoint manager audio.
 3. The system of claim 1,wherein the head and torso simulator device is further configured tosimulate a plurality of acoustic properties of human head and torsoanatomy.
 4. The system of claim 1, wherein the first audio generatordevice is further configured to produce a plurality of reference audiosamples.
 5. The system of claim 1, wherein the head and torso simulatordevice further comprises a plurality of additional microphones.
 6. Thesystem of claim 5, wherein at least a portion of the plurality ofadditional microphones are configured to detect and report backgroundnoise.
 7. The system of claim 5, wherein the head and torso simulatordevice further comprises a plurality of additional audio generatordevices.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein at least a portion of theplurality of additional audio generator devices is configured to producea plurality of background noise.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein thehead and torso simulator device is further configured to transmit aplurality of audio via at least a portion of the plurality of additionalaudio generator devices, the plurality of external audio being based atleast in part on a plurality of audio being transmitted by a secondaudio generator device.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein a pluralityof additional head and torso simulator devices are configured tosimulate audio characteristics of a crowded environment.
 11. The systemof claim 10, wherein the crowded environment is a contact center,wherein each head and torso simulator device is configured to simulate acontact center agent.
 12. The method of claim 2, further wherein thehead and torso simulator device is configured to report on a pluralityof background noise.
 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising thestep of scoring the received background noise.